The Old Man and the Seat
|network = swim |prev = Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat |next = One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty }} "The Old Man and the Seat" is the second episode of the fourth season of Rick and Morty. It is the 33rd episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 17, 2019. It was written by Jacob Hair and directed by Michael Waldron. Synopsis Rick hunts down someone who's been using his secret pooping spot. Meanwhile, Jerry develops a dating app with Rick's intern which leads to some strange consequences. Plot At breakfast, Rick runs out of syrup for his pancakes and gets his intern, Glootie, to give him some more. On Glootie's forehead is a tattoo that says "DO NOT DEVELOP MY APP". While Glootie persistently asks the family if anyone would like to develop his app, Rick dismisses him and when Jerry asks why the message was tattooed on Glootie's head, Rick specifically says it's so Jerry doesn't do develop Glootie's app. Done with breakfast, Rick alludes to going to the bathroom in a roundabout way. As soon as he steps out of the room, however, Summer explains that Rick is a "shy pooper" and elaborates on how shy he is in detail, even telling the rest of the family he has a special pooping place. Jerry smugly states that he's not a shy pooper like Rick, to sarcastic congratulations. After he finishes with his own toilet business, Jerry loiters by Glootie who is photocopying something. They get into a short conversation about developing Glootie's app without really explaining what it is. Jerry immediately jumps to agree to develop Glootie's app with bare minimal persuasion. On a gorgeous lush planet with beautiful exotic plant life and landscape, Rick lands his ship on a sparkling beach. He wades through tall grass while inhaling the air and goes through a forest with thick tall trees before reaching a toilet seat on a short platform. While enjoying the breathtaking view with its glittering aurora borealis-like light display in the night sky, running glistening stream nearby, gentle breeze, and distant calls of the wild, Rick takes a poop in isolation. After he's done he washes his hands under a small, natural waterfall, he spots a suspiciously broken tree branch a few feet away. Rick pulls out an instrument to analyze which of the inhabitants of the planet could've broken it, but the results are unknown. Furious, Rick lets out a whaling cry. One of the alien animals approaches in response, and Rick turns one of its antlers, revealing it to be a robot of some kind. The creature trots to a tree and connects with it, which opens an elevator in the tree. Deep underground, Rick has a high tech setup. Using a computer, he analyzes the matter that didn't come from him and finds out it's from a specific sandwich an unidentifiable intruder digested earlier. Back at the Smith Residence, Jerry and Glootie pop champagne celebrating the launch of their app just as Morty walks past the doorway. Morty stops and enters, immediately realizing what Jerry did. Morty incredulously asks why Jerry thinks Rick told them not to develop Glootie's app. When Jerry dismissively says it's because Rick is a "disrupt-o-phobe". Morty grabs him by the collar and tells him it's too keep something horrible from happening that Rick was too lazy to explain. Glootie gladly chimes in to inform them that they've got their first users of the app. At the mall, Summer happily opens the new app "Lovefinderrz" on her phone, which just matched her to Danny Publits, a 25-year-old who works at Jersey Mike's and watches 25 Phish shows a year. Beth, who was eating lunch with her, disapproves, not least of which because of Danny's age. When Danny runs over to them in a mess, he blatantly ignores Beth, and he and Summer run off together. Meanwhile, many other people also get notifications on their phones from Lovefinderrz and start running off to their new romantic matches too. Beth, scandalized, calls Jerry to let him know what's going on, disparaging Lovefinderrz's poorly-given name, and informing him she'll be late. Embarrassed, tells Glootie to shut the app down. But Glootie says he can't; he's just an intern. Dismayed and frustrated, Morty destroys their computer set-up with a tennis racket. Unfortunately, that's not how apps work, as stated by Glootie, and destroying their computer won't immediately affect the app at all. Morty shakes Glootie and tells him to get it off the server then. Glootie tells Morty and Jerry the servers are on his mothership. After a little more shaking and an escape attempt using an "Ominous Beeping App," he is coerced into taking them aboard. At the Best Frog Food Place in Gorgon Quadrant, Rick bursts in on a fly-creature mob boss named Vermigurber surrounded by his frog lackeys. Rick wants to know about the sandwich, which is first misconstrued to be double-talk for drugs or guns. After Rick threatens the lives of Vermigurber's 470,000 of 800,000 kids and learning that Rick really was there about a literal sandwich, he tells Rick what he wants to know: who ordered the sandwich. Vermigurber doesn't know, but he does tell Rick that the delivery drone who delivered it ran off to fight in the robot wars. Back with Summer, who just rented motel keys, and Danny, they get interrupted by Beth. When Beth grabs onto Summer's arm to stop her, Summer yells "assault!," to which Beth retaliates with "statutory rape!" An exhausted-looking motel guest joins the commotion from his window on a higher floor to tell them the people at the motel have their own problems and can't afford to get mixed up in theirs, so they must deal with theirs on their own. Summer tells Beth she can't stop Summer from getting a hotel room, so Beth stubbornly says she'll get the room next to theirs and listen to them with a glass against the wall. On the mothership, Morty and Jerry tell the first person in the teleporter room to take the app down. After Glootie confirms he's their hostage and that none of them have a weapon, the second secretary tells them he's an intern so he can't do anything about the app either. Morty tells him to take them to someone who can do something or he will punch him. He agrees after a beat and they are all escorted to meet the leader of the Monogatrons, Glootie's species. The leader tells them that while human race had still been toying with fire, theirs had tamed the power of functioning, committed relationships. Again, Jerry and Morty demand that the app is taken down or else they'll punch him. The leader looks around wondering if there was someone with a gun or other weaon, and Glootie reports it's on its way. Jerry asks what the evil plan is, to which the leader returns with his question of if an evil plan is necessary. The Smiths awkwardly mumble before a gun is finally brought in and it turns out that there really was an evil plan involved. The app was a lure to people with the promise of "love." As a primitive pre-app species, humans don't realize love is abundant, but not as abundant as water, which is what the leader of the Monogatrons wants from the humans and their planet, and he's using humans' love seeking flaw as a distraction. As the leader is explaining his plan, on Earth, Summer leaves Danny in the middle of the night when the app matches her with someone new and various others around do the same, dumping their previous lovers easily for their new "soulmate" their app matches them with. After explaining the plan, the leader's wife comes in to make date plans. While she and her husband are talking to each other like how to partners in a healthy relationship would, Jerry and Morty fight off the interns and try to escape. In the middle of the robot wars battlefield at the Midland Quasar, Rick impersonates a Lieutenant Commander by wearing a metal funnel with a QR code on its side as a hat. Just as Rick finds the delivery drone to ask about who he delivered an avian protein club sandwich with no lettuce to, it gets shot in the head. Rick rushes to grab three of the four pieces of the drone's memory archive chip after it is killed in battle, killing a few lizard soldiers standing in his in the process. Upon encountering the fourth quarter, one of the lizard people mockingly swallows the last piece in front of Rick. Out of annoyance, Rick single-handedly upsets the war and the Robolution overturns the lizards. While the news is being delivered, in a quiet alien office, Rick delivers a sealed contamination box to a solemn, soft-spoken office worker named Tony. Rick asks where he wants to die, to which Tony calmly asks Susan if conference room three was available. In the office, Tony asks if he could look at a photo of his wife while Rick kills him. Tony soberly and gently explains that his wife is dead, that he's a shy pooper, and that was the reason why he used Rick's nice toilet. Rick gives him a look, before portaling to another dimension where Tony's wife lived, bringing that version of Tony over to explain he used a really awesome toilet that day too. Disgusted, Rick shoves the other Tony back to his dimension and tells Tony not to use his dead wife as an excuse for being a toilet thief. When Rick makes to leave, Tony wonders if Rick's not going to kill him. Petulantly, Rick shouts, "Don't tell me what to do!" before setting a dung bomb on the conference table that poops up a middle finger after stinking the whole room up. Back in his high tech bunker, Rick is vibing when he gets an alert that Tony has returned to poop on the toiler. Rick disbelievingly gets into a giant robot version of himself to confront Tony. The two get into an argument, with Tony fearlessly telling the giant Rick that pooping is a bid for control; a way to protect that one thing from a universe that takes whatever it wants. Rick stubbornly turns around, pulls his pants down, and sits on Tony in response. Tony opens his eyes to cloudy toilet heaven and is greeted by his wife. Both God and his wife encourage him to poop with them, but Tony grows more dissatisfied and sad the more they insist. It turns out Tony is actually hooked up to a giant artificial sac filled with a red liquid. Perhaps subconsciously Tony is aware it's not actually heaven, so his body twists itself around to choke himself with the breathing tubes. Before he can die, Rick comes to cut him out. Indignant, Rick explains the chemical is called Globaflyn, which connects the whatever-you-want section of the brain to the whatever-you-have section. Tony looks around at all the various people trapped in sacs which is kind of prison Rick built where they could live their wildest dreams while leaving Rick out of them. Tony hits the nail on the head with the realization that they're people Rick refuses to kill and refuses to let into his life. Pettily, Rick opens a portal and tells him it's Tony's last chance since he rejected the heaven Rick had offered. Amused, Tony tells Rick he'll be seeing him, offering friendship even as Rick, ill-tempered, pretends otherwise. In a ventilation shaft, Morty and Jerry come up with a plan to destroy the mothership and escape. Exasperated and fed-up, Morty wearily agrees. Jerry insists on a high-five despite Morty's ill humor and pointed comments about how they were in that mess because of Jerry but finally gives in. Unfortunately, the grate under them collapses and the two land in the middle of an army of soldiers. Back with the toilet, Rick rigs and connects it to a complicated-looking and foreboding looking system. On Earth, havoc continues to reign with the constantly hooking-up and un-hooking-up couples. Summer paraglides into a church to interrupt the wedding between her latest beau, Jeff. Just as Jeff asks the priest to marry them instead of with the bride, a man on a motorcycle bursts in to take Jeff away. The two ride away just as another man riding a horse burst through a window for the bride. Another wall collapse as a construction worker rides a crane to pick up the priest. Then a woman in a hot air balloon crashed through the ceiling for Summer. Beth, determinedly following Summer, crashes her paraglider into a barnyard. The farmer inside shouts at her in shock asking what she's doing. Beth shortly replies she's parenting. Locked up, Morty and Jerry are freed by Glootie after Jerry manages to bond with him. Glootie implies he'll take down the dating app before making a whimsical exit. Rick enters Tony's office building and asks the tearful receptionist if he's there since he brought him some Vegan Fiber Chili and a box of sugar-free chocolate, and to tell him the toilet's all his. She sadly informs Rick that Tony died after quitting his job, living life to the fullest before crashing into a tree space-skiing down Mount Space Everest. Summer, who was on a plane with the last woman gets another ping on her phone to let her know she has a new soulmate and leaves to meet him. After greeting him, she gets into another fight with Beth who is determined to mother her. The two get into a dramatic physical fight on the airport apron. When Summer's phone pings yet again, she desperately picks it up after Beth had knocked it away momentarily. This time however the app is covered with Ad wall. Already tired of it, Summer deletes the app and numerous others with the app do the same. Listlessly, Summer and Beth head home. The Monogatron leader gets huffy about losing Earth and when his wife tries to console him they end up bickering about the importance of water over their relationship. Back home, Jerry and Beth talk about Beth using the app, but Beth reassures him she didn't. The two hug and Beth hides the fact that she was matched up with Ted Danson before deleting the app. At Tony's funeral, Rick gives Tony's dad $8 billion in his local currency, a kit to clone a new son even though it wouldn't have the same brain as Tony, and tries to comfort the dad by explaining in that one of the infinite universes Rick explored there's a version of Tony that was completely evil because of how fulfilled he was. Sympathetically, the dad puts a hand on Rick's chest, intuitively saying it was hard losing a friend. Rick abruptly curses him and denies he was Rick's friend. Back at the toilet, Rick pees over the side of the cliff instead of using the toilet. He drunkenly stumbles over to it before sitting down. When the two intimidating giant-gun like mechanisms rise out of the ground point at him, they turn out to be speakers, repeatedly mocking in Rick's voice as numerous holograms of him appear cheering and applauding. As Rick sits on the toilet and the main hologram continues to mock him, a crown that was in the toilet tank is placed on Rick's head and it starts to rain. In the after-credits, Jerry takes a lick of Globaflyn from the fridge and sees himself as a water-cooler replacement man for "Mountain Sweat" and getting thanked and appreciated by a woman. When Jerry comes back to the present, he starts desperately licking the chemical. Cast and characters Deaths * Tony * Numerous Robot Rebels * Delivery Drone * Lizard people Locations * Replacement dimension ** Smith Residence ** Rick’s Secret Pooping Place ** Merpal's Mall ** Frog Restaurant ** Blue Ball Motels ** Monogatron Mothership ** Midland Quasar ** Office ** Airport Episode notes Trivia * The episode title is a reference to 'The Old Man and the Sea' by Ernest Hemingway. * One of Rick’s insult holograms calls him “Big Bad DooDoo Daddy”, referencing the swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. * Morty reveals that he thinks Jerry is a loser. * Rick’s walk through the alien wheat on his Pooping Planet is a reference to the film “Gladiator“ where Maximus walks through the wheat in the Elesian Fields, his afterlife. * Summer reveals that Rick is shy about using the bathroom. * In celebration of Season 4, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came: Funnel Head Rick as an avatar, plus High Intern Morty and Vermigurber Morty to catch. * The QR code on Rick's funnel hat is a real QR code that leads to the Rick & Morty online shop. ** The online Rick & Morty shop started selling a replica of Rick's funnel hat after the launch of the episode. Series continuity *Thing that can be seen in the refrigerator when Jerry was in it. **Butter Robot **The lead bully appears on a milk carton. *Jerry's office has a poster of the Titanic. The love he has for the movie Titanic was explored in "Ricksy Business." Cultural references *While Rick was in his underground lab underneath his private toilet and erasing his data on Tony, he was listening to the song "My Shit" by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. *Rick and Jerry’s comments on Ron Howard refers to Solo: A Star Wars Story, a film Howard directed that not many were fond of. Transcript View a full transcript of this episode here. *The Monogatron leader is dressed like and talks similar to The Emperor from Star Wars. *Rick mentions The Beverly Hillbillies, a TV-show that was later made into a movie. Site navigation Category:Season 4 episodes Category:Rick Episodes Category:Jerry Episodes Category:Summer Episodes Category:Beth Episodes